Novamente os mexicanos aterrizam nas páginas do TBTCI, agora sendo representados pelo quarteto San Cristóbal de las Casas.
Apesar de estarem na ativa desde 2013, somente no início deste ano que enfim os caras colocaram suas sonhadoras canções para serem apreciadas pelo globo.
Shoegaze, apenas shoegaze, nada mais, guitarras a serviço de sonhos, distorções para flutuar.
Para ficar de olhos e ouvidos atentos.
***** Interview with San Cristóbal de las Casas *****
Q. When did San Cristóbal de las Casas start? Tell us about the history...
I meet William and Brandon when we were in middle school, I was already playing guitar and became good friends with William, so he became interested in playing music as well. Then on our last year of middle school Brandon started to hang out with us a lot more as he was starting to play guitar. We would just gather at my house to play some covers for fun, but then when we all entered high school William came up with the idea of playing in a band for real during a trip to the "Simón Bolívar" street here in Mexico city to Buy his digitech whammy, i've always wanted to, but i din't feel like i was ready to do so because i wanted to play original music; But we rolled with it and started playing some covers, nothing special; But then after a year of doing it i was starting to get frustrated with the music we were playing, just after a lot of time thinking about the kind of music that i wanted to make we started to compose our songs and we cut our drummer whom was a friend from middle school because I thought we were "just noise". Willy introduced us to Jesus who was the drummer in his high school music workshop and was playing for like 12 bands; He was apparently the only drummer in our whole town that listened to the Smiths, so it was an obvious match in some senses. But then we went all crazy and we cut him because you know ... drummers ...
So we started to search for new drummers (you can guess how that went) and we all went trough rough times and personal struggles until we came back together to finish what at the time was "Icarus Fell, but then more emotional struggles came and I gave up on the band, but then started to "secretly" record the new tracks with Jesus on a camcorder ...
And now we're back together and everything is great.
TL: DR .... So yeah, we've been a band of depressed barnacles since august 2013 i think.
Q: Who are your influences?
We all have different influences but i would say the common ground is mbv, Ride, Swirlies, Bloc party, Interpol, Cocteau Twins, The Cure, Owen and American Football.
Q. Make a list of 5 albuns of all time…
That’s almost impossible to answer, so i would rather put 5 albums that each member of the band finds vital to their creative process at the moment...
(Also put Loveless and Today {Galaxie 500} on top of everything of course)
Me: Silent Alarm - Bloc Party
Going Blank Again - Ride
Age of Uncertainty - Muuy Biien
A Strangely Isolated Place - Ulrich Schnauss
Chairs Missing - Wire
Brandon: Whirlpool - Chapterhouse
American Football - LP1
Going Blank Again - Ride
Analphabetapolothology - Cap’n Jazz
Ghost Town - Owen
Jesús: Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? - The Unicorns
Fantasies - Metric
Waking Season - Caspian
You forgot it in people - Broken Social Scene
Luminous - The Horrors
William: Turn on the Bright Lights - Interpol
Rollercoaster - Red House Painters
Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins
Downward is Heavenward - Hum
Battles - Gloss Drop
Q. How do you feel playing live?
We haven’t had the chance to play live yet, it’s been hard to find a venue to play in. But we’re gonna make our “live debut” next week in a crappy teenage party with lots of cheap alcohol, and we’ve been rehearsing at least 3 days a week since january of this year.
Q. How do you describe San Cristóbal de las Casas sounds?
On simple terms i usually say that we are trying to be like “Ride meets American Football” , and without using power chords, that’s our running gag “no power chords”. But i’m just trying to make shoegaze that has some math-y elements to it and that isn’t too ethereal á la slowdive, wich is what most bands try to do at first. And also escape from the “Everlasting C86” or the “Macho cock-rock” that exists in the music scene of my country.
Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
The first few recordings were done in my bedroom, recording with an old sony camcorder and then Jesús would do the editing of the clips in a totally legal version of FL Studio, and later i would do a final mix with the vocals on Ableton.
The only difference with the last recordings is that everyone recorded their own parts as opposed to me just recording all of the instruments.
Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
Not especifically new bands, but just off the top of my head: Narcia, Muuy Biien, Julien Baker (even though she’s super famous now c: ), Brown Bear (electronic/ambient stuff) and Westkust.
Q: Which band would you love to made a cover version of?
I would love to do a bloc party cover if i was able to sing decently, but i’ve always wanted to do a Pavement cover!
Q: What are your plans for the future?
I want to go down in musical history as conceited as that sounds.
Q: Any parting words?
Thanks a lot for having interest in our music, to everyone who might listen <3 br="">*
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Thanks
https://sancristbaldelascasas.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/pg/SCDLCasas
